Alex Eala eyeing more international competitions following U.S. Open Juniors debut

NEW YORK — After a strong debut at U.S. Open Junior championships, where she won her early singles and doubles matches.

Pinay tennis phenom Alex Eala’s bid for the grand slam finals screeched to a stop with back-to-back losses on Wednesday.

In the morning, the Philippines’ Eala lost round 2 of the junior girls’ singles to thai player Mai Napatt Nirundorn 7-5, 6-3.

After losing the first set, eala came back strong winning 3 games in a row in set 2. But she lost 6 games in a row thereafter – and failed toadvance to round 3.

In the afternoon, Eala and her partner Elvina Kalieva were defeated by French partners Aubane Droguet and Selena Janicijevic 3-6, 3-6.

“One thing I’ve learned here is that anyone can win, you know, we all have a chance, if you believe and your work hard, then you can, like, do anything and you could get as far,” Eala says.

Eala told ABS-CBN News that she wants to inspire other Filipino athletes with her debut at the U.S. Open juniors.

“I hope that being here shows other Filipinos that they can also do it.”

Eala now belongs to a small elite group of pinoys who not only qualified for the U.S. Open juniors but made it far in the tournament.

Other Pinoy grand slam junior qualifiers in the past include Jeson Patrombon in 1991 and Francis Casey Nino Alcantara in 2009.

“It’s a great experience for me, it’s my first grand slam main draw, though I am sad that this is the end of my run here in the U.S. open 2019, I’m glad that I fought till the end, you know I’m gonna come back stronger next time.”

“You have to take the losses that come with the wins, just have to learn from it and get back on court and try to do better.”

Besides her goal of coming back to the U.S. Open juniors in 2020.

The 14-year-old tennis phenom isalso eyeing tournaments in South Africa and the Australia Open in Melbourne in january.

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